Helloooo Friday! I’m so happy you’re here. It’s been a really nice week. I’m psyched you enjoyed Monday’s post on meal planning, and I can’t tell you how excited I am to dive into your laundry list of reading recs this weekend. You guys killed it on that! Seriously, if you need a good book, just head to Tuesday’s post.

I got in good workouts this week making for some really good sleep, which always makes me feel more balanced. There are new projects and collaborations coming into place which is helping me feel grounded heading into the weekend. I’ve been drinking peppermint tea at home which is so good for soothing my stomach after dinner. Pretty much all Brandon and I can talk about these days is our dream home. The closet in this post on Young House Love largely sums up all my hopes and dreams of having a place we can truly make our own. I picked up this marble slab this week and can’t wait to start  using it in food photos. And did you see Joy is starting a new web series? It’s so good!

I’m headed up to the country for the weekend to help my mom pack and clean our house… because she’s moving! This has been a long time coming but it will be a little sad saying goodbye to the place we called home for the last 19 years. But the cool part is that she’ll be doing a complete renovation to her new house and I can’t wait share all the before and after goodness here!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend. Thanks so much for reading this week. xx

Image Source found via Kendi Everyday (and now I am in love with this blog!)

Over the summer I shared part one of my Williamsburg food guide. I’m so thrilled to release part two today. That would make 20 restaurants in total worth visiting in my neighborhood! Yeah… we’re a little bit spoiled. But let’s get to it- I’ve walked you through the 10 restaurants highlighted above after the jump. First though I want to give a shout out to the amazing Asia Pietrzyk who made all the amazing illustrations for this series. Aren’t they just the most darling things you’ve ever seen?! Asia lives in Stockholm and has some other really incredible work- definitely check her out. I loved working with her!

Café Colette Café Colette ranks as probably my favorite brunch spot in Williamsburg. I love the sweet [Read more...]

Just over two years ago Brandon and I took a trip to Asia. We had three friends overseas that were sort of dotted all over that general area. It made for one of those “we better take advantage of this now” type trips, knowing they wouldn’t all be there forever. We were scattered across the continent for three weeks total- first in [Read more...]

You guys, I am in a reading rut. I’ve got one book I’m kind of poking along with, but I need a really good read. A page turner, people! Some of my favorite books have been A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Half Broke Horses, Daring Greatly, and Sarah’s Key. What would you recommend?

 Image Source (anyone know original source?)

This is your typical Sunday morning- coffee in hand, pen and paper, and a stack of Bon Appétit magazines. It’s meal planning time! As I was sitting down to do it this week, I thought you guys might be curious to see my process. It’s nothing too complicated, but it makes getting dinner on the table  and not letting the food in our fridge go bad during the week much easier.

I generally let my farmer’s market purchases guide our weekly menu. I like to pick what looks best that week and go from there. I get all our produce at our Saturday market so that come Sunday I know what I’ve got to work with and what I need to buy at the grocery store to round out the week. This week I picked up bell peppers, tons of broccoli, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce, and a bunch of apples. I’ve got two dinners out this week and Brandon is headed out of town so I didn’t want to overdo it.

I start by outlining all the items I’ve got to work with- from veggies to pantry and freezer, and any other little tid bits that will help me figure out what I need to get from the store. Like breakfast and snacks- I want to make sure we have enough to last us through the week.

After reviewing what I’ve got, I start crafting meals. Seeing all the ingredients I have on hand listed side by side helps me create meals that minimize the additional items I need to buy, and plan enough meals for the week. This makes life so much easier! The chicken and broccoli dish was for Sunday. I knew we’d have a few leftovers, but we’d need something else to round out lunches. A quinoa black bean salad was a no brainer, given what I had on hand. I have a ton of peanut butter in my cupboard since I accidentally bought a jar when I already had a full jar, so I decided a big batch of peanut noodles for dinner one night would be perfect. Plus, it’d use up any remaining veggies, and give us enough for leftovers. And the roasted apples are kind of just for fun- a riff on a recipe shown in the first photo!

I’v always got a pile of lettuce or dark greens on hand which become side salads pretty much every night of the week, and help round out a lunch that isn’t too veggie heavy. Three meals (with leftovers built in) seem to be our magic number, leaving us with enough food to get us to the weekend. Weekends we do most of our eating out, hence the Saturday/Sunday planning schedule.

That’s pretty much it! I’d love to know, how do you guys meal plan? Anyone else highlight the ingredients they need to buy? Control freak, right this way!

Hot diggity I am soooo done. After going on 12 straight days of working I am ready to unplug, lounge, and just plain old hang this weekend. Do you have a perfect Saturday morning? This is mine: I wake up around 9 am (because I can some how miraculously sleep until that time), make a homemade latte, and curl up on the couch to watch my favorite shows from the week. Parenthood! Nashville! You’re back! (Ssshh don’t tell me what happened.) Then I walk to the farmer’s market and load up on all sorts of goodies for the week. After that I come back home and tackle some sort of household project that has been on the back burner forever. This weekend it’s switching over my winter wardrobe and purging my closet. I’m feeling a major purge and considering doing an online sale of some lightly used items. Would you be into that? Anyway back to the weekend- I then round out the day with a sweaty workout and dinner with good friends. That is exactly what is going down tomorrow and I could not be more excited.

I’m closing the week with an insanely good granola recipe . This was my first time using olive oil as the fat in my granola, and I gotta say- I love it. The flavor is nothing like you would imagine. This will be part of my perfect Saturday, too! Thank you all so much for your support on yesterday’s post. I’m so thrilled you’re just as excited as me about the series. Here’s to a wildly relaxing weekend!

Salted Maple Pecan Olive Oil Granola adapted from Food52

• 4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1 cup raw sunflower seeds, hulled
• 1 cup unsweetened coconut chips
• 1 cup raw pecans, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup raw pecans, left whole or coarsely chopped
• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place oats, sunflower seeds, coconut, pecans, brown sugar and salt in a bowl and mix until well combined. Mix together syrup and olive oil in a measuring cup. Pour over dry ingredients and stir well to combine.

Spread granola mixture in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Transfer to oven and bake, stirring every 10 minutes, until granola is toasted, about 45-60 minutes (mine took closer to 55 minutes).

Remove granola from oven and  let cool completely before serving. Can be stored in an airtight container up to one month.

One of my long time blog dreams has been to share inside peeks of my favorite restaurants in the city. And as made clear by the survey, you’re hankering for more content around what to do and where to eat in New York, too! I’m thrilled to kick off the first of many posts to come that show my go to spots for dinner, grabbing drinks with friends, or enjoying lazy brunches on the weekends. I’ve teamed up with my sweet friend Sas of Sasithon Photography to capture all the beauty of the food and spaces. Her photos are going to blow your mind!

To kick things off [Read more...]

Visiting the blog Lark & Linen is like enjoying a cup of hot tea- warm, inviting, and oh so cozy. I’ve been following Jacquelyn’s beautiful blog for longer than I can remember, but every time I visit I get lost in her beautiful posts- whether it’s a gorgeous interior or delicious dish. So naturally, she had to be our next girl crush! Read on to learn about how she got the fabulous job of heading up Style Me Pretty Living (yep that’s her job!), how she decompresses from a social media fueled work life, the chapstick she can’t live without, and more…

I absolutely love the design and aesthetic of Lark & Linen! Did you design it yourself? When did you start your blog?
Thank you so much! I’ve been blogging for just over three years now (wow, saying that “out loud” is crazy! It feels like I just started). I actually hired graphic designer Aprile Elcich a year and a half ago to come up with the design. I still can’t believe how perfectly she captured the look I was after! She’s the best. Seriously.

What prompted you to get into blogging?
I feel like this is the most obvious answer and we’ve all heard it a hundred and one times, but [Read more...]

Good morning! How was your weekend? It felt glorious to get out of the city and do something good. As I mentioned last week I volunteered to assist with Farm Aid‘s annual event, a benefit concert that works to support small family farms through funding and really more so educating the public on why we need these farms that grow quality food in a sustainable fashion. These are the farmers taking care of our land through farming, not flooding it with chemicals. If you know me, you know this is something that is near and dear to my heart and why I take shopping at the farmer’s market so seriously. These farmers are facing all sorts of political and economic pressures, and it felt good to do something truly active to support this cause. Plus it didn’t hurt getting to see Dave Matthews perform. Swoon!

Now, the blog. First off, you are awesome. The feedback I received from the survey was incredible. And the cool thing? We are all on the same page! You want food, you want the dets on where to eat and what to do in NYC, you want to know how I started my business (from soup to nuts), and you want more on blogging- how I grew this blog and what I recommend to newbie bloggers. I have covered some of these topics before, especially the latter two (here & here), but I’ll be getting back into them. On the food, I hear you on the recipes! And especially those of you who want more full meals. I’m working to get as many to you as possible. In order to do that, food will likely switch to the middle of the week. Monday was proving to be a bit of a challenge for me, so look out for food posts on Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the next few weeks.

Beyond that, it’s clear you have some general questions about my life- everything from my daily routine, to how I stay in shape and handle my taxes. It became clear as day that I need an FAQ section! So grab your coffee and cozy up, I’ve answered the most asked questions below, [Read more...]

Yesterday a friend sent me a short but really sweet email to applaud me for all that I’d accomplished in the last two years. It was completely unexpected, but (of course) really made my day. All too often I focus solely on the future- on ways I can grow or be better. I rarely step back to take in how far I’ve come or even allow myself to feel good about what I’ve done. We don’t do this enough for ourselves! That email set the tone for my entire day, and it probably took my friend less than five minutes to write.

It’s kind of  ironic because lately [Read more...]